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The White Room provides current information relating to new technologies for energy efficiency. Stay connected with the latest news, events, and scientific breakthroughs in this fast moving sector. Use our filters on the left or click here to send a suggestion for content to add.

Adding a coating of graphene or carbon nanotubes is showing promise for improving the energy density of traditional ultracapacitors and may have applications for the lithium-ion battery market as well.

A research team at the University of Texas has made interesting new structures from graphene. The one atom thick material forms a network of tunnels, leading to high surface areas and potentially high energy storage.

A startup called Nanotune has developed a way to make electrodes that result in ultracapacitors with five to seven times as much energy storage capacity as conventional ones. This development could make electric cars cheaper and extend their range.

The DOE has funded a factory to produce activated carbon materials that could improve ultracapacitors for batteries and energy-storage devices, but it's not clear that battery manufacturers and automakers will have much use for the material in the next few years.